The Still Night
by Xannytoes
Summary: As a silent night falls, Ash reminiscences about a certain coordinator. One-shot. Advanceshipping, AaMayL, ADV, SatoHaru.


**Xannytoes: **Hai der! You guys seemed to like my last one-shot, so I thought I'd write another. I'd especially like to thank **Farla**, who gave me some good grammatical advice. Whilst I'm going to keep Pokemon names and titles like Professor and Gym Leader the same, I'll try and take your suggestions for my dialogue to heart.

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Ash woke with a start.

The night was still. The wind had died many hours ago and the various Pokémon of the woods had taken to their various homes. There wasn't even the cry of a Noctowl, calling through the night. Not even the trees dared break the silence; their leaves remained frozen on their branches.

Rubbing sleep from his eyes, the trainer sat up. He'd been awoken by some awful nightmare, which had fled as quickly as it had appeared. A quick glance at the sky revealed it was many hours until sunrise. No doubt he'd be spending the next few hours trying to sleep, waiting endlessly for the faint rays of light to pass through the branches.

Ash sighed. Taking great care not to wake his companions, the trainer slipped into the treeline with great stealth. This was something he'd done numerous times, with great precision and skill. Besides, Iris and Cilan slept so heavily there was little chance of waking them.

Weaving a path through the forest, Ash began quickening his pace once he was certain his friends couldn't hear him. He dived through the branches and pushed past a thick of brambles, eventually emerging in a small clearing. The moonlight reflected on a small pool of water at the centre.

After Cilan had fallen ill, Iris had decided that the group couldn't move camp until he recovered. Suffering from some sort of flu, Cilan had been attended to by Iris for the past few days. The dragon trainer would willingly journey to town, a two mile journey, to fetch berries and remedies…

It reminded Ash of a time since passed…

"_No, we have to keep moving!" Ash protested._

"_No you didn't mister, you're going straight back to bed" his brunette friend replied._

_Ash grumbled. So what if his head felt like it was on fire? They had to make it to town by the evening for the Pokémon contest. He wouldn't let a stupid illness ruin his friend's chance of a place in the Grand Festival. Yet every time he tried to protest, she would silence him. She sat with him the entire day, feeding him berries and drops of some foul-tasting medicine._

_By the evening, Ash had recovered to the point where he his head didn't feel like it was trapped in a furnace. However, the contest had long since passed. _

"_Why'd you do it May?" Ash asked his friend, forcing down another glass of the disgusting liquid. _

"_Do what? Take care of you?" May replied, "Because you're my friend, dimtwit." _

"_You missed your contest though!" Ash exasperated, "That just makes it harder for you to get into the Grand Festival!" _

_May shook her head, sighing. Ash thought he'd annoyed his coordinator friend, but he quickly caught that wonderful smile of hers. _

"_Winning the Grand Festival might be my dream Ash, but what's the point of fulfilling a dream if you can't share it with the ones you lo- the ones closest to you?" _

_Ash had never been so touched in his life. Here sat a girl who was willing to place him above a dream she had been training for over countless years. Without another word, he laced his fingers around May's. A gesture that showed not only how much he appreciated what she had done but also that he would do the same for her. _

_May just smiled and squeezed his hand._

Ash's smile only lasted a brief moment as he recalled the memory, before he remembered how much he missed his bandanna clad friend. Sitting by the pool of water, he rummaged through his pockets for a certain memento of many moons ago. A first glance would suggest an object broken in two. In reality, this was a ribbon from Terracotta town, split between trainer and coordinator.

As he held it up to the descending moon, he should have seen his own reflection. But all he could see was a pair of beautiful sapphire eyes…

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**Xannytoes: **That's all for now! Be sure to review and favourite if you enjoyed ;)


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